From: Bhrihskwobhloukstroy
Message: 69995
Date: 2012-08-29
> Science24 August 2012:
> Vol. 337 no. 6097 pp. 957-960
> DOI: 10.1126/science.1219669
>
> http://www.sciencemag.org/content/337/6097/957.full
>
> There are two competing hypotheses for the origin of the Indo-European
> language family. The conventional view places the homeland in the Pontic
> steppes about 6000 years ago. An
> alternative hypothesis claims that the languages spread from Anatolia
> with the expansion of farming 8000 to 9500 years ago. We used Bayesian
> phylogeographic approaches, together with basic
> vocabulary data from 103 ancient and contemporary
> Indo-European languages, to explicitly model the expansion of the family and
> test these hypotheses. We found decisive support for an
> Anatolian origin over a steppe origin. Both the inferred timing and root
> location of the Indo-European language trees fit with an
> agricultural expansion from Anatolia beginning 8000 to 9500 years ago.
> These results highlight the critical role that
> phylogeographic inference can play in resolving debates about human
> prehistory.
>
>
> ps: The main result is the phylogeography: First branch, Anatolian; second
> branch, Tocharo-Armenian; third branch, Indo-Iranian + Greco-Albanian; 4th
> branch, Balto-Slavic, and last branches, Germanic, Italic and Celtic. I'd
> like to see you comments..
>
>
> JS Lopes
>
>